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It does not deserve it: Barak Bachar is the easy and wrong option for coaching the team

Like Kashtan, Gutman and Elisha Levy before him - the Maccabi Haifa coach is the clear "next in line" for the national job, on the way to another failure.

Moshe Boker wonders when we will understand that local championships and success in European factories are not a measure for choosing a national coach, and explains why the right man for the job is under the nose of the association

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• Israel's national team

• Barak Bachar

• Alon Hazan

• Ran Ben Shimon

• Willie Rotensteiner

Moshe Boker

Wednesday, 01 December 2021, 13:00

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Summary: Israel - Faroe Islands 2: 3 (Sport 1)

Willy Rotensteiner will soon submit his report to the chairman of the Football Association, Oren Hasson. It would be a kind of period summary. The (unofficial decision) has already been made by the association's chairman. Rothensteiner will not get another chance. And not just because of the results.

Just as there is a consensus among the committee members regarding the end of the Austrian coach's path, so there is a consensus regarding the much professional appreciation they have towards him. His knowledge, understanding, worldview and most importantly - what are his conclusions for the future, not only intriguing Hasson and committee members, they very much want to do homework before deciding on the appointment of a new national coach. Despite the association chairman's disappointment with the coach, especially regarding his style and conduct off the field, Hasson appreciates him highly from the professional aspect and he strives to get the concluding report from him as soon as possible.

The report of Rotnstiinr important and significant because he did here both roles most important - professional director of the Israel national team and national coach. Recall, even his opponents were not released for a moment doubt that a professional (especially as a professional manager) some of the best that were in Israel.

So yes, Football Association They liked to underestimate and immediately throw the professional reports into the archives, but this time, Hasson and his friends on the search committee will recite it orally.

By the way, Rotensteiner's report, however good it may be, will not stop Mahson from trying to persuade him to give up part of his salary. The Austrian has signed a contract until May, Hasson will try to persuade him to give up at least three months' salary. For the chance that he will have another term - zero.

More on Walla!

Barak Bachar: "Team? A great honor to be reminded of this issue"

To the full article

Still considered one of the good professionals who have been here.

Willy Rotensteiner (Photo: Bernie Ardov)

The search committee will not wait for Hasson's persuasion attempts to end and it will convene soon to begin the process of selecting a new coach for the team. Unlike Maccabi Tel Aviv, a foreign coach is an option, but not a way of life. As time goes on, the chances of appointing a foreign coach diminish. Reasons abound. The association will not invest insane sums for a foreign coach, and if already bring a medium and gray foreign coach, it is better to have our own coach, blue and white. Hasson also favors the appointment of an Israeli coach.

The prevailing opinion among journalists and commentators (and not only) is that the next coach of the team should be Barak Bachar. And according to everyone's concept, it's also clear why. Bachar won three championships with Hapoel Beer Sheva, led Maccabi Haifa to the championship after a decade, in other words: he is next in line.

The betting exchange and speculation regarding the appointment of Bachar is not unfounded.

It has a historical basis.

For years there has been a regular procedure of selecting coaches for the national team.

They were all elected to the post after meeting the standards of the association's heads, a journalist and sports commentators and they all recited the words: he is next in line.

Kind of "deserves it."

The criteria that were in the association (also in the media) were simple.

You won titles - you're next in line.

This is how Dror Kashtan, the most decorated coach in Israeli football, was named, this is how Eli Gutman was named after the amazing double he took with Hapoel Tel Aviv, and this is how Elisha Levy was chosen.

Each of them was pre-marked for the position without criteria for their suitability for the position.

With the exception of one or two criteria - winning a local championship and media pressure - no other parameters were tested at all.

The resume was perfect, but for the team it did not fit.

Eli Gutman (Photo: Reuters)

It was easiest for everyone to flow with the flow. Go safe, so to speak. Who would not bet on an Israeli coach who is on horseback, one who has brought championships, trophies, presented attractive football and also enjoys excellent public relations. Oh yes, and they had added value - they managed to bring a group to Europe, some of them had a wonderful journey on the continent. In short, the phrase: Next in line, won big. And now, according to the usual procedure regarding Bachar. The most decorated coach in the last decade. He even did a successful campaign in the home stage of the Europa League with Hapoel Beer Sheva.

Barak Bachar is an excellent coach. Without a doubt the best that Israeli football has to offer in recent years. But the question is not whether Bachar is an excellent coach, the question that the members of the search committee should ask themselves is he suitable for coaching a team? After all, Kashtan was the best league coach we had here. Excellent professional, disciplined, thorough, authoritative and highly experienced. In the league and in Europe.

And Guttman? With the nickname "German" he built a rich career in Israeli football, won major championships with Hapoel Haifa, Hapoel Tel Aviv, won trophies with Hapoel Beer Sheva and Hapoel Tel Aviv and also managed to lead a team to the home stage in Europe. He even trained overseas. And he was thorough, authoritative, charismatic, intelligent, and what not. Exactly answers to the phrase: Next in line.

Elisha Levy also made a rich and varied career. The coach who grew up in Beit Sham and starred in the film 'Beit Shean, a war film', won the championship with Maccabi Haifa (a second championship with Haifa was taken from him because of the offsetting method). He, too, enjoyed the regular procedure that was here.

The members of the search committee, led by Hasson, should ask themselves whether they also want to make life easy for themselves, whether they also want to avoid media criticism and go for the obvious again.

But Hasson and his committee members should try to get out of the box and pack for the coaching staff in the appropriate packaging.

With all due respect (and there is respect) to Kashtan, Guttman, Levy and their predecessors, where did we get with them?

Enjoying the festival around it.

Barak Bachar (Photo: Maor Elkelsi)

Where exactly did the top coaches we had in Israeli football lead us? How did it happen that those who devoured titles in our league, who did school for other coaches, crashed into the team? Did any of the decorated coaches who were, in any way promote the national team? Are we not tired of engaging in every campaign on the question of whether we will be able to maintain our ranking in Europe, will we finish in third place to get a comfortable lottery?

And when we finished in third place and got a reasonable draw, did we get to the World Cup? Should we go to the euro? The team’s campaigns have become the ones that start dreaming, then pray to finish in third place and then celebrate that we didn’t fall to the fourth tier (and there were times we fell). The obsessive preoccupation with the fear that we would go down in the rankings and get a tougher lottery in the next campaign was and remains an illusion, a kind of public relations campaign. After all, history has proven to us time and time again that it does not matter who the next coach in line is when it is his turn to fail. And in a big way.

Assuming that a foreign coach is dropped (in my estimation, only an Israeli coach will be appointed), the search committee will have to choose one of the three: Barak Bachar, Ran Ben Shimon and Alon Hazan. The question / examination of whether Bachar prefers to stay at Maccabi Haifa or be appointed coach of the team, must be clarified only after the members of the search committee decide whether the most successful coach in Israeli football today is suitable for the team.

Meanwhile, Bachar is enjoying the festival around him. His team continues to dismantle the league, his shares are on the rise, and at most even if he or the committee decides he will not get the job, he can always use it to increase his demands in negotiations with Yaakov Shachar on his next contract with Maccabi Haifa.

If the members of the selection committee try to diagnose the suitability or incompetence of Bachar (and any other candidate) for team coaching, they will break conventions here that should have been broken long ago.

Rotensteiner, through the report he will submit, and through the concluding conversation with him, can give the committee members some important tips. It is time to learn that a team coach is not a team coach. In both cases the rules are the same and the ball is round, but these are two different worlds.

His own greatest enemy.

Ran Ben Shimon (Photo: Liron Moldovan)

And what about Ran Ben Shimon? He also led Kiryat Shmona to the championship, had a great season in Ashdod, is considered a senior coach, and has experience as a national team coach. Even if it is the Cyprus team, it is still a coach who led a team in a qualifying campaign, understands the meaning of a team and knows the rules of the game so different from a league. And Ben Shimon, on this subject, knows the differences between a league and a team. If he had managed to conceal his identification as the top mixer among the Premier League coaches - he would undoubtedly have been the leading candidate for the national job.

After all, two of the biggest mixers in Israeli football have been appointed coaches of the team. The first - Abraham Grant - was at a time when technology was not advanced and his genius allowed him to mix them all up successfully, the second - Eli Guttman - failed to understand that in the age of the internet, social networks, and all the wonders of technology, it is hard to mix and not snatch. As before, this time too, Ben Shimon's biggest enemy on the way to coaching the team, is without a doubt himself. We have already learned that what works well in teams may not necessarily work well in a team.

And there is another candidate. Alon Hazan. It may be considered less popular, less realistic, but it is well worth considering. Beyond the great success (so far) in the campaign with the young team, Alon Hazan is the classic candidate for coaching the senior team. If we want to get to Europe, maybe we should learn something from the Europeans.

Alon Hazan is one who grew from below.

He is the only coach in the history of Israeli football who has played at all stations.

Hazan was a star in the local arena, played at Watford, was a senior player in the Israeli national team, and coached in the Premier League.

He coached the youth team B, the boys team A, the youth team, served as the assistant coach of the senior team (of Andy Herzog and Rotensteiner), and even stood twice as interim coach on the lines against Romania and Croatia.

Knows the team best of all.

Alon Hazan (Photo: Berni Ardov)

If there is a coach who knows the Israeli team best today, he is a cantor. He knows the work patterns of the teams, the difference between coaching and preparing a team for the league and that of a team, has coached and nurtured most of the players in the senior who passed with him at a young age, and he is highly valued among the players and connected to them.

Even in the corridors of the association, Hazan is very much liked, his work style, his quiet demeanor in front of the actors, members of the association and the media. Hazan enjoys great appreciation from many factors in the association, including Hasson who several times accompanied the senior and young team and saw Hazan's work up close.

The big question is whether he has the ability to withstand the pressures of a national team coach, but players and professionals claim that the many stations he went through, and especially the years alongside Rotensteiner, qualified him for the job.

We will soon know whether the members of the selection committee stick to tradition and go for the next in line, or they go for the most suitable candidate, knowing that for the first time a coach will be appointed who will have two and a half years to prepare the team for its main goal - Euro 2024 in Germany.

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