Maccabi Tel Aviv did not have high hopes for Maccabi Haifa losing points in last night’s (Sunday) match against MS. Ashdod (which ended in a 0:5 victory for the Greens). The club kept their fingers crossed, but they also knew how to say that the level differences are clear. “To bring back the championship,” they said in the club, “we will have to trust ourselves and not the others.”
Later in the day, Maccabi Tel Aviv breathed a sigh of relief: the ultrasound test that the team’s striker, Younes Melda, underwent, testified that he does not suffer from a tear – but will have to gradually return. This means that he will be absent from the next two games – against Maccabi Jaffa in the round of 16 of the cup on Wednesday and also from the league game against Maccabi Petah Tikva.
On another issue, the team is debating whether to risk Dan Beaton: the option at hand is to give the midfielder, who suffered an ankle injury, playing minutes already in the round of 16 of the cup, the day after tomorrow against Maccabi Jaffa, or to wait a little longer until he fully recovers. The player does train, but according to the medical team, he still does not feel 100 percent fit.
In any case, it seems that Robbie Keane will make several changes in the lineup, in order to allow players who have not received significant minutes recently to prove to him that they deserve more. These include Ofir Davidzadeh, Aden Kartsev, Kiko Bonduso and Yonatan Cohen.
Meanwhile, the talks with Maccabi Herzliya about the desire to transform the team from the national team to a subsidiary team, are stuck. The reason is the desire of the Herzliya owner Ariel Shaiman, who has invested tens of millions in the last 30 years in the group, to continue to determine, and not to move aside on this issue.
According to the powerful man in Herzliya, during the talks, Maccabi Tel Aviv asked to transfer to him starting next season young players who will receive significant playing minutes, and in the talks it was even mentioned that Barak Itzhaki would be the coach. Of course, these talks took place before the appointment of the coach at Beitar Jerusalem.
Currently, Shayman, a Maccabi Tel Aviv fan since childhood who also works in cooperation with them as the owner of an advertising sign company, is not ready to move aside. It is not impossible that the Yellows from Tel Aviv will look for another team, when besides Herzliya, there are also Ness Ziona Section, Ironi Ramat Hasharon and Hapoel Rishon To note were mentioned.
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Will share against Jaffa? Dan Beaton (Photo: Alan Shiver)