Silves: "In Sakhnin, everything is very emotional. The losses sting the most" | Israel today

Haim Silves finished his career in Bnei Sakhnin after only six games without a win.

It's not that the team was at the bottom.

Sakhnin is in seventh place, only two points from the sixth place that leads to the top playoffs, but the coach paid the price and is now talking about his time at the club.

"It was a successful period and I'm saying this precisely after I'm no longer there," Sylves says in an interview, "in fact, the last period was the first crisis in the club since I've been there. Just before I sign a place, I set goals and objectives for myself at the team level and only then the personal

"Then I do a tactical mapping and check how with the tools that await me I do the best there is. I arrived in January and until the end of the season we met the goals of making the top playoffs and with good results which also includes a victory over Maccabi Tel Aviv. Also the beginning of the season with 13 points In seven games it's something worth noting and against top playoff teams. It's impossible to define my time in Sakhnin based on the last six games."

Abu Yunus

Thank you for the syllabus, photo: Maor Alxalsi

- Do you think that the loss to Beitar sealed your fate?

"There are meetings that don't need to be motivated. I prefer to stay away from anything related to politics and deal exclusively with football. This is an excellent question that is worth asking the management. Losing to any team is too much. In fact, these specific losses came after a great season and I was surprised that hostility was created on the part of the audience towards The system. In retrospect, this was the marker for the bad period. Bottom line, we lost because we were probably less good."

- Could it be that the fact that they didn't sign you straight away in the summer was your place to leave?

"Every person wants to be appreciated for their achievements and to see a reward for their efforts, and therefore, I was disappointed. I am a professional and look at things coldly. When I set goals, I look less at what the management will decide, I prepare myself as usual on a professional and tactical level. It is true that there is a personality here and not Precisely because of me but because it is a transition period between seasons and critical weight scouting.

Syllabus.

Almost a year in Doha, photo: Alan Shiver

"Every minute that passes, you can 'lose' a player who can't come because they will already find a place for him to sign. Although it would have been much more correct if they had naturally renewed my contract, especially after the goal I achieved with Sakhnin the previous year."

Sylves added about the offer: "It was hard to refuse, because as a coach I want a team that I believe in and believe in the squad. As a matter of fact, after six games, and even though the team is in seventh place, I'm not there. In retrospect? I should have known that I wouldn't get too much credit here. Somewhere Deep down I felt it, but I really believed that we would succeed."

- But you made it to the top playoffs, it was supposed to be automatic?

"You don't think about it. It's true that when someone objectively looks from the outside he sees it, but when I work on a daily basis I don't feel it. It's a journey and we run together with the management and with everyone and the relationship is good most of the time. It's very important for me to note that I enjoyed it very much In Sakhnin, I experienced successes and unforgettable moments with the crowd, with the management and the people who surround the club and above all with the players and the staff, with whom I had a very strong connection.

Chaim Sylves.

Six games decided, photo: Dani Maron

"Actually, I am the most successful coach in Sakhnin since Yossi Aboksis, Sakhnin has reached the top playoffs once since then and it was with me. However, after a less successful month and a half, I had to leave."

- Feels like the players didn't take responsibility for the results.

"This is not accurate. The fact that in the end a coach pays the price too soon is true, but that does not necessarily mean that there is no criticism of players. I have the feeling that I left Sakhnin too soon, certainly when the team is in this place. You cannot replace all the players, certainly not When the window is closed and in my opinion everyone receives criticism during this period.

"The feeling in Sakhin that things are very emotional. The big problem in Sakhin is that losses burn strongly in the feeling and it hurts the feelings of the club leaders and the club's environment. You can suddenly change your mind about the players or you as a coach, in a very short period of time. This not only hurts the coach, it also hurts the team and turns bad times into for longer and makes it very difficult to manage the crisis.

"I'm not here to fix the world and it might sound clichéd, but you have to be more patient and contain less good times and know how to manage a crisis. It doesn't matter what club you are, whether Maccabi Haifa or Tel Aviv, there are moments and times when it doesn't work and there are crises that you just have to know how to manage In teams like Sakhnin, the coach is sometimes also the media consultant, the analyst, and other roles that he is not necessarily appointed to. At the same time, it is important for me to state again that I greatly respect the people I worked with at Sakhnin, from Abu Younes and Khaled Duchi in the lead, through all of them. I had a respectful relationship Very inclusive at the moment of departure."

Haim Silves. Ready for the next challenge, photo: Maor Alxalsi

Bnei Sakhnin has a dominant management, with the chairman Muhammad Abu Younes and the CEO Khaled Dochi, but around him there are few sponsors and management members who advise and see themselves as part of the system.

Sylves knew this when he arrived in Sakhnin but was not afraid.

Even in the firing of previous coaches, when the ground started to burn and the discourse around it became negative, there was no escaping the firing of coaches and so was Sylves.

 "In clubs like this, the outside comes in and the inside comes out, everyone is involved, and that's also the magic of these places," he explains, "everything is family. As a coach, I only dealt with Abu Younes and Duchi, and they are the ones who ultimately make the decision about, and it doesn't matter what influence the decision has ".

- How was the relationship with Biram Kiel?

Maybe his involvement could have ended the story with you differently?

"To attribute to him only dominance off the field does him an injustice to what he still does on the field. Because usually it is attributed to players on the field who are already less good. With Biram, his great strength is that he is an excellent player, sweeping, powerful in training, a winner with morals Crazy job. He brings a level of professionalism from the British Isles which is also an added value for young players or those who fight less.

Chaim Sylves.

Just almost, photo: Ancho Ghosh

"He is a leader in every sense of the word. Thanks to all these things, people follow him everywhere. He has the ability to deal with many aspects because of his leadership and verbal ability and connections. I really enjoyed working with one such artist and he deserves every compliment."

- Where are your mistakes this year?

"The building of the team was good and to see an excellent start to the season despite the late signing of the coach, a late start to training camp and various crises. The team arrived ready for the league, and had a great start to the season and everyone who saw it said it was the best team in the league after the big three. So if the coach is to blame these days Less good at what is not good, you can also 'blame' him at what is good.

"Of course, in the games where we were less successful, my actions were also less successful. I am not without mistakes and I try to improve all the time. In modern football we see frequent changes and I always try to be there. If it is trying to build an array of analysts, to introduce new technologies, something that does not always succeed in places Of this type, mainly because of budget limitations. In any case, I follow and study trends every day. I must have made mistakes in various lineups and substitutions, and this is something that can always be done better. I still think that the last six games do not define my time in Bnei Sakhnin, because apart from These games, there were another 30 in which we did succeed. This is a piece of the road, in which we made the top playoffs and started the season, as mentioned, excellently. Overall, I enjoyed it.

- Do you think you could have done more if you had stayed?

To meet the goal of reaching the top playoffs?

"I don't know if it's more or less, I know that I would have met the goal of reaching the top playoffs. I wish Sakhnin to meet this goal even without me. I'm complete as far as I'm concerned. I left a team in seventh place, a step away from the top playoffs."

Syllabus.

To the next station?, Photo: Alan Shiver

- Where did you go now?

"The thin line between self-awareness and arrogance may give the wrong impression, so I won't testify too much about myself. I can only say that as a coach I am constantly developing. These are things that, from the outside, are less visible. The players are the ones who work with you as a coach on a daily basis and know you in the best possible way. I am certainly happy and proud of the things I did in Sakhnin, both on a professional level and on a mental level. I can train in any club and achieve any goal."

- Do you feel that there might be damage to your image now?

All professionals, whether it's players who worked with me and coaches of colleagues from other clubs, know how to appreciate me as a professional and know that my teams have a very strong characteristic, they are always organized and disciplined and this is never done out of tyranny or dictatorship."

"Mostly I have worked in places that are not easy, it is true that my image is quiet, but I am not a sucker. My quiet nature is what protects the system."

- and you are still waiting for a jump in your career as a coach, to get big clubs and try to succeed there as well.

"Jumping in the end is to a big team. Because in terms of achievements, the data is very clear and transparent: I coached in four clubs in my career. In three of them I achieved achievements. In Ra'anana, making the top playoffs is an achievement like winning the championship. In Hapoel Haifa I am the second, with Klinger, in 18 years that we made a top playoff and in Sakhnin since Aboxis, I'm the only one who made a top playoff.

"Apart from Kiryat Shmona, where I really failed and mostly learned, in all the teams I was able to achieve achievements and they were not obvious. The point is that in the end there is a negative streak and this is perceived as bad, because that is what is remembered. Other achievements that are never counted are promoting young people and selling Players and all the clubs I go to have success in these areas."

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