“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.
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.
The terraces25 Jan 2027
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 6 of the 30 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saher Taji will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Netanya the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Marked 9.16 — 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.
Basam Za'arura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The name of Oz Bilu has come up in conversations Maccabi Netanya were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Marked 8.46 — 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.
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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Maccabi Tel Aviv? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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.
“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.
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 Netanya have had the benefit of it.
Dor Hugi 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 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.
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.
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.
Marked 8.88 — 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Saher Taji will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Maccabi Netanya the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
Johnbosco Samuel Kalu 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.
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.
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.
Marked 8.70 — 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Saba Khvadagiani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
“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.
Dor Hugi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 8.91 — 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.
Shots: 10. Goals: none. The chances were there and they were good ones, and they went into the stand, the goalkeeper's arms and the side netting in roughly that order.
Every debut is a small story about the future: Daniel Atlan, 19 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
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.
Marked 8.58 — 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.
“I watch every Maccabi Netanya game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Astana runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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.
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 Netanya that is a harder question to answer.
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.
Marked 8.82 — 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.
Marked 8.06 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
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.
Marked 9.94 — 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.
Saba Khvadagiani 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.
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.
Marked 8.33 — 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.
“I watch every Maccabi Netanya game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Astana runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
7 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.
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.
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.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Bnei Sakhnin defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Aziz Ouattara signs something — a contract at Maccabi Netanya or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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.
6 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.
Marked 8.73 — 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.
Marked 8.14 — 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.
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.
It needed Thomas Amang to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Beitar Jerusalem, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Saba Khvadagiani 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.
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 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.
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.
Add another name to the list: Hapoel Haifa have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Saher Taji. The answer from Maccabi Netanya has not changed — yet.
“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.
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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Basam Za'arura has his answer from Maccabi Netanya; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The offer from Maccabi Tel Aviv for Maxim Plakushchenko 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 Netanya, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
Dor Melikson is 16, and Maccabi Netanya have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
He is 16, and nobody at Maccabi Netanya signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
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.
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.
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.
A season-long look at somebody else’s player: Ibrohim Najimov arrives from Navbahor with something to prove and a return ticket in the drawer. Good loans make everybody richer; this one starts Saturday.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Gontié Junior Diomandé and Maccabi Netanya agree another 4 years.
48 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
“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.
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.
The shirt still fits. Loay Halaf is back at Maccabi Netanya, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
The name of Oz Bilu has come up in conversations Maccabi Netanya were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.