81 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Netanya lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Netanya know it.
$59.0K on the table at Hapoel Haifa. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matheus Davó was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Samu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ibrahim Tanko'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.
88 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Netanya lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 The request is on a desk at Maccabi Netanya, and it is not being withdrawn.
$130.0K on the table at Hapoel Tel Aviv. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Davó is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Maccabi Netanya has been clear about where Denis Kulikov stands, which is more than many ever get.
The words a physio says slowly. 95 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 accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Oz Bilu was one of the reasons people came, and $770.0K does not replace that by itself.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Maccabi Netanya have done the hard part with Persija, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Maccabi Netanya asked and Persija said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Samu was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sagiv 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Amit Refaelov 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.
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Netanya lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The name of Pedrinho has come up in conversations Maccabi Netanya were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Li On Mizrahi and Maccabi Netanya agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Matheus Davó 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 Netanya asked and Maccabi Tel Aviv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 Netanya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I did not go to Bnei Yehuda to sit and watch. I want to come back to Maccabi Netanya and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Maccabi Netanya have made the call to Debrecen. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
111 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maccabi Netanya lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Itai Ben-Shabat has gone, the accounts have $620.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Maccabi Tel Aviv paid $620.0K and Maccabi Netanya took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Matheus Davó 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Eli Benayoun and Maccabi Netanya agree another 3 years.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Maor Levi has his answer from Maccabi Netanya; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
In brief
The dugoutIbrahim Tanko is still being punished for one mistake
118 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maccabi Netanya 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 Netanya have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Hapoel Acre for Saba Khvadagiani 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 accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Omri Shamir was one of the reasons people came, and $520.0K does not replace that by itself.
“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 Netanya, and it is not being withdrawn.
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 easiest signature of my career.” Nadav Niddam and Maccabi Netanya agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The words a physio says slowly. 126 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.
He is going to Maccabi Petach Tikva, the club has $1.1M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Add another name to the list: Hapoel Acre have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Saba Khvadagiani. The answer from Maccabi Netanya has not changed — yet.
Maccabi Petach Tikva pay $1.1M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
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.
At 28 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Maccabi Netanya has been clear about where Aílson Tavares stands, which is more than many ever get.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Denis Kulikov
“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 Netanya can pretend not to have heard.
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.
At 26 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 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.
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 Netanya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Omri Shamir has come up in conversations Maccabi Netanya were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Maccabi Netanya 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 Netanya can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Hapoel Beer Sheva for Pedrinho 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aviv Kanarik and Maccabi Netanya agree another 3 years.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 4 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Maccabi Netanya they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
$3.6M on the table at Hapoel Tel Aviv. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“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 Netanya know it.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Karem Jaber and Maccabi Netanya agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Samu 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 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.
3 appearances and 0 goals is not a season away, it is a year lost. He is back at Maccabi Netanya no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their fault.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Omri Shamir trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
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 Netanya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Netanya know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Maccabi Netanya will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ziv Ben-Shimol trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Maccabi Netanya will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Netanya. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oz Bilu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout17 May 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ibrahim Tanko'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.
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.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxim Plakushchenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Netanya 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 Netanya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Netanya know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ibrahim Tanko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Netanya. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Samu was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oz Bilu 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.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
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 Niv Antman has written the date down.
A few words of the language, a friend at the next peg, and a training ground that has stopped feeling foreign. Nothing measurable, and everything visible on Saturdays.
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 Netanya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Netanya know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Denis Kulikov is on 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.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
Position 3, 46 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 Netanya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ibrahim Tanko'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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Netanya know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Netanya. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Netanya is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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 Netanya are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oz Bilu 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bakary Konaté trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Netanya. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Netanya can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oz Bilu 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 Netanya game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bnei Yehuda runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Maccabi Netanya know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Netanya, 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 Aílson Tavares has written the date down.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Maccabi Netanya has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Andriano Saputra has just signed for Maccabi Netanya, and for once the answer mattered.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Andriano Saputra and Maccabi Netanya agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Maccabi Netanya are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Nobody at Maccabi Netanya will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Maccabi Netanya have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Maor Levi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Maccabi Netanya. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Guy Levy has just signed for Maccabi Netanya, and for once the answer mattered.
Nadav Niddam 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 training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 5 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oz Bilu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oz Bilu, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Ibrahim Tanko 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Maccabi Netanya has been clear about where Alon Azugi stands, which is more than many ever get.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maxim Plakushchenko will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Netanya the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Netanya are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 Netanya can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Maccabi Netanya have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Maccabi Netanya told Grigory Morozov something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“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 Netanya, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Netanya can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Matheus Davó falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Maccabi Netanya told Bakary Konaté something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Niv Antman has his answer from Maccabi Netanya; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Maccabi Netanya has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 46 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
7.76, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matheus Davó is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Maccabi Netanya is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 10.00, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Dor Hugi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.38. 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persib have kept their man, and Maccabi Netanya go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Samu 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 Netanya, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Two goals and a mark of 9.06 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Maccabi Netanya asked and Maccabi Tel Aviv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“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 Netanya are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oz Bilu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Guy Cohen kept it short after the 3‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
That is the business done at Maccabi Netanya 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.
“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 Netanya are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Matheus Davó 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 Netanya asked and Bnei Sakhnin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Nadav Niddam 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.
100 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Guy Cohen after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Ramon Tanque is in the works
0‑3 to Hapoel Tel Aviv, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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 Netanya, and it is not being withdrawn.
Nadav Niddam and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Maccabi Netanya have made the call to Maccabi Tel Aviv. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Two goals and a mark of 9.28 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
1 for Aziz Ouattara, marked 7.92, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Maccabi Netanya asked and Persib said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Hapoel Acre have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Basam Za'arura. The answer from Maccabi Netanya has not changed — yet.
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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Maccabi Netanya have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Djoliba for Bakary Konaté 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Atlético Tucumán have kept their man, and Maccabi Netanya go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Netanya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
Minute 88, against Maccabi Tel Aviv, 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 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.
1‑4 to Bnei Sakhnin, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
“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 Netanya, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.99, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Tigre have kept their man, and Maccabi Netanya go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nadav Niddam 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.
Nadav Niddam 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.
Wylan Cyprien was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.10. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oz Bilu 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.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
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 Netanya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Maccabi Netanya can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oz Bilu 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 dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Guy Cohen left the room before anybody could ask which.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Hapoel Kiryat Shmona in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Maccabi Netanya will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Nobody at Maccabi Netanya is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Lautaro Di Lollo 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 easiest signature of my career.” Nadav Niddam and Maccabi Netanya agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maccabi Netanya can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oz Bilu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Position 3, 30 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 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 Netanya know it.
Nadav Niddam 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 1‑0 win over Maccabi Petach Tikva, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Maccabi Haifa 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.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Wylan Cyprien was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oz Bilu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Guy Cohen could afford to be generous.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Nadav Niddam and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Matheus Davó was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. 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.
Position 3, 27 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
A 1‑1 draw with Hapoel Kfar Saba leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Guy Cohen was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Maccabi Netanya dressing room was either.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
A brace, and Wylan Cyprien takes the afternoon — 8.39
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Wylan Cyprien provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A 2‑1 win over Hapoel Raanana, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oz Bilu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Guy Cohen on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Two goals and a mark of 9.65 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Up for the corner, and Wylan Cyprien delivers — 7.97
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Wylan Cyprien scored, was marked 7.97, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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 Netanya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Milciades Adorno has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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.
3 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Hapoel Acre spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oz Bilu 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.
Lautaro Di Lollo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Grigory Morozov is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Maccabi Netanya have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maccabi Netanya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Matheus Davó. 1‑0 against Hapoel Tel Aviv, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.09. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Maccabi Netanya.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Li On Mizrahi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oz Bilu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Guy Cohen could afford to be generous.
Hapoel Beer Sheva next, and one man in the Maccabi Netanya dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oz Bilu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nadav Niddam was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have 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 Netanya know it.
Bnei Yehuda next, and one man in the Maccabi Netanya dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Maccabi Netanya would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Nobody at Maccabi Netanya is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Milciades Adorno had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Bnei Sakhnin were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
“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 Netanya are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nadav Niddam and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“I did not go to Hapoel Haifa to sit and watch. I want to come back to Maccabi Netanya and fight for my place.” 1 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Matheus Davó was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oz Bilu is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A 1‑0 win over Bnei Yehuda, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match26 Sep 2026
Wylan Cyprien wins it after the whistle should have gone
90 minutes played. Wylan Cyprien found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Hapoel Kiryat Shmona went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Two goals and a mark of 8.20 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
“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 Netanya are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Aziz Ouattara was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 12 actions, 6.46, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Minute 91, 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.
A 2‑2 draw with Beitar Jerusalem leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Guy Cohen chose the glass-half-full version of 2‑2; the supporters left with the other one.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Maxim Plakushchenko may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
In brief
The dugoutNadav Niddam 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.
Lautaro Di Lollo 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.
It finished 1‑0, and it was Aziz Ouattara’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Maccabi Netanya.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Aziz Ouattara was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.05. 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The 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 done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Maccabi Netanya will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Guy Cohen, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
7.98, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 13 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Maccabi Netanya 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.
Lautaro Di Lollo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Maccabi Netanya asked and Estudiantes said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A 2‑0 win over Maccabi Haifa, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oz Bilu 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.
11 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.
“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 Netanya, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Aziz Ouattara takes the afternoon — 8.26
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Aziz Ouattara provided it, and the 8.26 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The fee is $1.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Beitar Jerusalem drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Estudiantes keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Maccabi Netanya asked and Temperley said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Maccabi Netanya people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Beitar Jerusalem have accepted the money. What Maccabi Netanya do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Maccabi Netanya have done the hard part with Boca Juniors, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Maccabi Netanya had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Boca Juniors, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Flamengo have kept their man, and Maccabi Netanya go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Netanya this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oz Bilu 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 plan went upstairs and came back down. Nothing about that will make a headline anywhere else, and everybody who works at the training ground will remember it for years.
The offer from Hapoel Beer Sheva for Li On Mizrahi 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.
Nadav Niddam 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 Oz Bilu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Maccabi Netanya have made the call to Boca Juniors. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Maccabi Netanya have made the call to Estudiantes. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Maccabi Netanya has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
SquadDaniel Atlan is not doing himself any favours
$3.1M on the table at Maccabi Haifa. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Maccabi Haifa have kept their man, and Maccabi Netanya go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.3M — a club that wants Pierre Cornud enough to be asked twice.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Atlético Tucumán is saying, and nobody at Maccabi Netanya is enjoying the guessing.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Uri Peretz 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Guy Hemed has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Eden Dabbur 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. Ori Natcho has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Nadav Niddam 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.
In brief
SquadA muscle injury sidelines Alon Azugi for 15 days
“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 Netanya know it.
Still no offer on the table, and Aziz Ouattara’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oz Bilu was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.