Head coach Elisha Levy was not the one who initiated several important decisions about Maccabi Haifa personnel this season. One of the more prominent examples involves the timing of the replacement of veteran goalkeeper Nir Davidovich.
Levy was involved in the decision to bring in a foreign player to replace the aging Davidovich, who has suffered recurring injuries. But he did not have the final say over when the Premier League soccer team would throw Bojan Saranov, the new goalie from Serbia, into the frying pan.
Levy started Davidovich during the Europa League qualifiers, including the home-and-home playoff matches against Racing Genk. He wanted to introduce Saranov gradually. Sources familiar with the situation say Levy told owner Yakov Shahar to do things slowly, but the boss was impatient. Other players were complaining about Davidovich's, who was bitter over having to fight for the starting role. The culmination was the match in early September against Ashdod, Davidovich reportedly made a face when he heard Saranov was going to start.
A furious Shahar called Levy in for a meeting and told the coach Davidovich was undermining the team's morale with his unacceptable behavior. Shahar told Levy it was time to give Saranov more playing time.
Levy nodded in agreement, and the deal was done.
"Many of Elisha's decisions are not always based purely on professional considerations," one player on the team said. "Many decisions are politically motivated. It's not only Davidovich. It happens with many players who suddenly join the starting eleven and stay there without justification."
Shahar is correct when he says it is absurd to assert that he decides who starts - that is solely Levy's authority. But all it takes is a small hint, a direct or indirect message or an opinion expressed in the hallway for the coach to divine the owner's wishes.
For years observers have said that while the team has no official general manager, the owner has been the de facto GM. Everything, apparently, goes through him, from acquisitions to the release of players to fostering young players who appeal to Shahar.
Perhaps this explains why he fires coaches less frequently than other owners. Just Tuesday, after Haifa lost its third straight league game, Shahar told a local radio station he "wasn't happy with the situation but wasn't about to throw Levy out of his job."
Shahar has a long tradition of taking the coach aside after every match to air his opinion on the game and the players. He uses qualifiers such as "It seems to me" and "perhaps you should consider," and the coach has no choice but to fall in line.
It's not for nothing that Tamir Cohen has started recently. With Cohen - an expensive acquisition - struggling, Levy kept him on the bench for a stretch. On several occasions Shahar asked Levy how Cohen was progressing and suggested that he receive more opportunities to prove himself. It took a few games among the starting eleven for Shahar to realize that the signing was a mistake.
The arrival of striker Marlon de Jesus came as a surprise to Levy, who was testing out another Colombian to fill in for injured defender Andriy Pylyavskyi. De Jesus showed up with his compatriot but ended up being the one who was signed. After a while he replaced Vladimir Dvalishvili in the lineup. A source at Maccabi Haifa says he suspects orders came from above regarding de Jesus.
Meanwhile, de Jesus is back on the bench and Dvalishvili returned to bring Haifa some valuable points. Levy might have liked to have kept on Pylyavskyi, but Shahar apparently wanted to loan him to Beitar Jerusalem, where he will remain until June.
As a result of these examples many players feel their future is in Shahar's hands and that he is the one to please. One mentioned a recent meeting called by Shahar, after which Alon Turgeman, the team's young striker, started getting more minutes. "If this decision didn't come from above, then where?" he said, adding that he was not questioning Turgeman's abilities but wondered why Levy had not thought of playing him more prior to the meeting.
