Omri Gandelman, one of the stars of the young team's wonderful journey in the summer, was sold to Ghent for 2.5 million euros in a wonderful deal for both the player and Maccabi Netanya. He joins his teammate of the past two years, Raz Shlomo, for whom Luban paid 1.1 million euros. If we add Arad Bar, who left Maccabi Petah Tikva for Zurich, Stav Lemkin, who signed for Shakhtyor, we get a very successful summer of our intermediate soccer teams that are starting to receive significant dividends for the investment in the youth departments and the significant expansion they have made in their scouting departments.
Hapoel Be'er Sheva made a conscious decision several years ago to give up its youth department. Despite the great success of the senior team, a significant expansion of the fan base and the possibility of using the communities around the city to turn the youth department into one of the strongest and largest in Israel and immense pride for the city and the southern district, Alona Barkat chose to give up and base the building of the Israeli squad on the acquisition of players from the middle teams.
Alona Barkat. Where now?, Photo: Alan Shaver
In addition, the team did not invest in setting up scouting and data departments, while its major rivals, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa, expanded theirs significantly and some of the intermediate teams, such as Maccabi Netanya, joined the cause and managed to land quality foreigners (sometimes while paying a transfer fee), earn them in the league and bring them out at a profit (Twumasi, Planić and Yovanovic are just some of the examples).
When you take all this into account and add to that Be'er Sheva's budget cut and the fact that Barkat refuses to pay a transfer fee and decided to bring in only free agents this season, you begin to understand why Elinav's team was in trouble at the beginning of the season. In particular, it seems that if they don't understand the mood in football, the future doesn't look very promising either, for the team from the capital of the Negev.
Elinav Barda. Facing Levski Sofia, Photo: Alan Shaver
Elinib Barda worked his magic in his year and a half as head coach. He brought a trophy in a very impressive campaign, beating Maccabi Tel Aviv Bloomfield in the semi-finals and the champions Maccabi Haifa in the final, finishing second ahead of the Yellows who had a significantly larger budget and upgraded intermediate players, such as Shai Elias, Eden Shamir, Roy Gordana, Sagiv Yehezkel in a very impressive way and turned them into leading players in our league. But Barda's abilities also have their limits.
This season Be'er Sheva did complete the squad at a very early stage, which gave a lot of reasons for optimism, but then came the crash in the European game against Maccabi Tel Aviv and since then the team has been in a race to minimize damage ahead of the league opening. The new arrivals – Sefer and Patterson – are struggling to acclimatize, no leading player has been brought in to midfield in place of Micah, the defence has not become young and Marciano's footplay, who did not play at all last season, is not at the same level as Glazer and hampers Breda's attempts to move the ball from behind.
Elinav Barda. Will he make changes to the team?, Photo: Alan Shaver
Unlike its big rivals, who can bolster the squad with players from their strong youth teams, Be'er Sheva doesn't have that luxury and looks stuck with a future shrouded in uncertainty.
Now, just before the match against Levski Sofia, Breda's thoughts are not how to advance to the group stage (an impossible task in light of the draw of the play-off round, Frankfurt), but how to restore the confidence of the players themselves, the players in the coach and the coach in the players, and this is done step by step, win after win, when ability is less important.
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In addition, B.S. needs to think about the near and distant future. Be'er Sheva needs to rethink its course for the start of the league, contain the professional mistakes in player selection and financial losses, add a creative midfielder and a winger, while loaning out one or two of the foreigners up front. As for thinking ahead, a much more significant change needs to come here, because if Be'er Sheva does not understand the changes that are taking place in our football, it will be difficult if not impossible for them to catch up in the foreseeable future with the growing gap between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa - and the dream of the fans to celebrate a championship again in Turner will remain only a dream.
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