Yannis Sapropoulos bought time, but "without results, rumors will not stop"

The announcement of the Greek coach's stay will allow him breathing space, but the "unofficial" Maccabi Tel Aviv know: he is not yet immune, and will have to prove himself after the staff is refreshed.

The reinforcement will come from Europe, the goal: to immediately sign a guard who will reduce the load from Wilbkin and Evans

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31/12/2021

Friday, 31 December 2021, 08:45

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Yannis Sapropoulos sums up the loss to Anadolu Zero (Video Photography: Danny Maron Video Editing: Assaf Drori)

In recent days, Maccabi Tel Aviv has been run as two separate entities.

The first, official entity, the one that also last night (Thursday) issued the announcement at the end of the board meeting that Yannis Sapropoulos continues and the club will continue to make efforts to strengthen the staff;

And the second entity, the one that also came out of the system, that provided rumors and assessments of the coach's deteriorating status.

The official Maccabi Tel Aviv was the one that tried to fend off the wave of rumors at least twice in recent weeks.

The last time was after the derby, when she clarified in conversations that Sapropoulos' status was not on the agenda.

But ahead of the game against Monaco the rumors and reports came back, and despite the denials and the fact that it was clear that the Greek was continuing at least until the next game, for the club people it was enough to issue the unconventional announcement.

More on Walla!

Maccabi Tel Aviv announced: Yannis Sapropoulos continues as coach

To the full article

Still appreciated, but "it's not that Etudis or Sharas are in the market."

Sapropoulos (Photo: Danny Maron)

So what actually keeps Yannis Sapropoulos as the Yellows' coach? First of all, the belief of the club management in the Greek coach. Maccabi has great appreciation for Sapropolos, who is perceived as a good coach for the Euroleague level, whose results speak for themselves. "Yannis is not our problem," the group repeated last month, "it's true that he also has a part in what is happening, but he is not the main problem."

The second issue is the lack of a proper replacement. Walla! Sports learned that a number of European coaches, some of whom had coached for years in the Euroleague, sent indirect and direct messages to the club management that they would agree to come, even until the end of the season only, but none of them caused the Yellows to abandon their favorite coach.

"You have to understand, it's not that Sharas or Itudis or coaches of this size are on the market," Maccabi said during the week.

Among the names that could have come to mind were veteran Jasmine Rapsha, Remas Cortinaitis and Vivgeni Pashtin.

In addition, at this stage, the Israeli option did not fascinate the Maccabi people either.

The third issue is faculty.

Maccabi wanted to give Yannis Sapropoulos the credit to try and change the team through a change of players, one or two, with no less than three players marked as likely to pay the price - James Nanelli who has already been removed from the squad for Monaco, Jaylen Reynolds who improved against Zenit but does not keep Stability, and Derek Williams.

But the options are not many, and even names that were on the table did not convince the professional staff.

Are Williams and Reynolds also in the crosshairs? (Photo: Danny Maron)

So what's next? First of all, Maccabi Tel Aviv hopes to embark tomorrow (Saturday, 20:20) on a new path with a victory in an important game against Hapoel Jerusalem, a loss in which may be very decisive for the home game in the playoffs this year. The team will hold a training session today, after which the squad for the game will be announced, with James Nanley again expected to stay out.

At the same time, Maccabi really wants to immediately sign a player in the guard positions who will help Scotty Wilbkin and Keenan Evans. The fact that the player market in the United States is on the verge of impossible in light of the temporary contracts offered in the NBA wholesale, causes the team to look at options in Europe, as did Zenit St Petersburg with the signing of Tyson Carter from Laverio.

And what about Sapropolus?

The club hopes that the official announcement will cause peace in his sector, but they also know that if the losing streak does not stop, and in the coming week the team will not be able to win the Euroleague and cross the hurdle of Hapoel Jerusalem, the rumors will not stop.

"In the end we're just trying to stop it, but we'll probably not be able to stop it completely," a senior club official said last night, "hopefully the results on the pitch will complete the work we started."

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• Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball

• Yannis Sapropoulos