Summary: Beshiktas - Hapoel Tel Aviv 94:73/Sport1
Hapoel Tel Aviv went into the national team break in mid-February with a sour taste.
After losing in the derby at the end of a bad performance, they beat Hapoel Afula - only to fall off their feet against the missing Hapoel Holon and lose first place in the Premier League.
At the end, Danny Franco said that he was not surprised by the situation and came out in front of the cameras against some things that happened at that time in the group.
"We don't deal with specific players enough, there are too many assumptions," said the coach.
"We have no reason in the world to be poor, there is no reason in the world for them to feel sorry for us. This shows everyone that at the end of their salaries and their busyness, and their talk about championships and all the nonsense around, from the moment we started talking, everyone thinks we are already some kind of Euroleague team."
That monologue revealed the first glimpse of the pressure Franco is dealing with, and almost exploded in the first week after the break.
It already started in the game against Holon, which Hapoel Tel Aviv started weakly.
The coach looked very nervous on the lines, and raged in front of the referees already in the first quarter.
"The referees were angry, but the behavior was very disrespectful," said a league referee who was in the hall at that game.
A few days later, Bnei Herzliya arrived at Hall Shlomo and the worker ran over her, but Franco's nerves flared again, this time on the avenue of sports channel Noa Popplinger, whom he pushed, and he was not prosecuted in the end.
This pressure did not come from nowhere.
Tonight (Wednesday, 19:30, live broadcast on Sport2) the Reds will appear for the first knockout game in Ofer Yanai's debut season as owner, when the team's coach does not have a contract for next season while many players do.
At the age of 50, Franco knows that without a significant achievement in Europe or in the league, his chances of continuing to the next season are very low, and it is not certain that even such an achievement will secure his place.
"As long as the goals are met, the criticism is only from the teacher."
Danny Franco/Audi Citiat
Franco returned to Hapoel Tel Aviv during the 2020/21 season.
The team at that time was fighting for survival against Maccabi Haifa and Ironi Nahariya, which the coach had left a few months before.
In his first term in Adom, he led Hapoel to the Final Four for the first time after a decade and a half, a decade and a half, and in the second season he had a less good season.
If there is no big surprise, this summer he will complete five and a half seasons as coach of Hapoel Tel Aviv and will be equal to Baruch Shlain who coached the team in the 1950s and 1960s;
Only Shimon (Chinga) Shelah, who coached the club for a total of nine years in three terms, held the position for a longer time than these two.
Franco's current tenure is a professional success, and it's hard to argue about that.
In the first year he led the team to stay, even though even after his return it suffered a severe injury blow.
Even in the next season, the results in the league were not perfect, but Hapoel reached the first cup final after almost 30 years and beat Maccabi Tel Aviv three times.
Last season, it qualified for the Eurocup quarterfinals and the playoff finals, and was two minutes away from its first championship after 54 years and its first title after 30 years.
Continuing this line of progress came the 2023/24 season, which should break the title drought.
As of today, Hapoel Tel Aviv is recording a great season in Europe and is in a record balance in the league - in a close fight with its city rival for first place, and with a significant gap from all the other teams.
"It is true that Danny enjoys money that was never in the club, but it is still a complex task to translate that into a successful team," praises one of Hapoel's members.
"Bottom line, Hapoel Tel Aviv in the last two years has been a success story. At the head of the professional system is Danny, and nothing can be taken away from him from these achievements that are listed in his name."
One of the coaches who met Franco this season said this week that "Hapoel Tel Aviv is a very talented team that plays in a very clear and attacking style, and knowing how to put such a group together into a team is a coach's achievement."
However, criticism of the coach, also from within the system, for the style of play and the defensive ability displayed by the team has been heard more than once in the last two years.
"As long as the goals are reached, this criticism is only from the teacher," says the club.
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So what exactly is the problem?
In the end, the answer is Yanai, who accepted Franco as a fait accompli when he came to Hapoel.
Unlike the last two major teams where he worked, Maccabi Haifa and Hapoel Jerusalem, the chairman Rami Cohen was the one who brought him back, not the owner. Yanai's entry brought in a lot of money, and a change began in the club. As far as the professional elements are concerned, everything remains concentrated in the hands of Franco - and the manager The professional Idan Felda is actually used as a consultant and was even supposed to leave before the war.
Up to a certain point in the season, Yanai's involvement in bringing in players was by putting the money in the coffers. But as the months passed, names of players were offered to the owner, and he began to consult with professionals, Although the final decision was the coach's.
Hapoel Tel Aviv recently said that in a system that has grown so significantly, there is room for decentralization of powers, but in the current case the situation is different. Franco is prominently connected to many decisions that are not necessarily directly related to the professional aspect - from flights to away games abroad." to, until the decision to move the home team in the fateful match tonight from Belgrade to Vilnius.
At this point, it is clear that even if Franco stays, Hapoel Tel Aviv model 2024/25 will consist of more professional figures than just the coach on the lines.
Behind the scenes there is talk of a foreign professional manager, while the possibility of appointing Finney Gershon, who is friends with Yanai, does not seem realistic at the moment.
People around Franco said recently that the feeling that losses are not accepted in a logical way is what increased the pressure on him.
One word that Yanai tweeted after the loss to Holon, "thoughts", was enough to illustrate this.
And yet, at no point was the owner hinted that he was not satisfied with the coach's work.
"If he brings a championship or Eurocup, it will be difficult not to continue with him."
Franco/Liron Moldova
Franco arrived at the last month of last season in a less than ideal state;
The team suffered a decline after being eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Eurocup, and there were talks that after the early elimination from the State Cup - failure in the playoffs would lead to the end of its career.
However, Hapoel Tel Aviv passed Hapoel Jerusalem in the semi-final series, and also impressed in the final against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Even if there is some dissatisfaction with the coach's behavior, Hapoel Tel Aviv knows that if Franco brings a title to the club, especially if it is a championship or Eurocup, it will be difficult not to continue with him, and it is not impossible that he will receive a new contract.
"We very much hope that he will do it like last season, and in Money Time will bring the team another step forward - that is, lead to winning a significant title. Even if not everyone always sees eye to eye with Danny all the time, in the end his success is the success of the club, and we We know this is what drives him."
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Danny Franco
Hapoel Tel Aviv basketball