It’s time to wake up, the house is crumbling. A marginal and not particularly important event that took place last night (Sunday) in the corridors of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s locker room may teach about the whole situation. General manager Adli Marcus complained to the club’s staff why no loud music was played in order to overshadow the celebration of Hapoel Tel Aviv fans, who remained in the stands long minutes after the game. Marketing Manager Nitzan Ferrero replied: “DJ, is that our problem? That there was no music? Maybe it’s better to hear them sing, maybe that’s what it takes to wake someone up here. ‘
Indeed, the feeling is that Maccabi as a system has fallen asleep in the face of the difficult crisis that befalls the team. The owners have been silent for a long time, the management has decided to take a step back, and in fact the only one standing at the front is coach Yannis Sapropoulos, precisely the man to whom all the arrows are pointed. If after the loss to Zenit Maccabi broadcast a uniform front regarding the status of the coach, last night after the loss in the derby already admitted: all options on the table, and despite a decision in principle not to shake at this stage, losses to Monaco and / or Hapoel Jerusalem, could shake the ship once again.
Where there are more people. There are several reasons for the decision, as of today, to keep Sapropolus in office. The first reason is the great appreciation and love for the man who managed to stabilize the system from the day he arrived at the beginning of the 2018 season, who soon fitted in perfectly with the Maccabean ethos and won almost unprecedented support from the crowd, probably compared to the achievements. It can already be estimated that Maccabi will not exercise the option on the coach next season, but the club very much wants to end the contract by the end and part ways in a dignified manner at the end of the season.
The second reason is the lack of a suitable alternative. Maccabi does not currently see a vacant coach in the market (not even Oded Katash) who fits the system and can make a difference this season. Even if one is found, and this leads us to the third, economic reason, it will involve full compensation for Sapropolus and his assistant, salary for the new coach, and the provision of resources so that he can make changes in the team – and this is an economic adventure that Maccabi does not want or can enter.
Now I’m that one gone. Another issue is technical short-term interest. If Sapropoulos goes, with him will also go assistant coach Vasilis Iragotlis. In such a situation, the team may enter a period when there is no persona that will be worthy of standing on the lines, even if temporarily: until a decision is made on the replacement, who will probably be a foreign coach, until he arrives in Israel, he will complete a minimum week of isolation.
This is a period of time in which the team can play at least two Euroleague games – and during this period there is no one to stand on the lines and manage the games. Maccabi wants to avoid a play where young and inexperienced coaches like Noam Levy or Doron Perkins will take over the reins. The possibility that the head of the scout department, Avi Even, will take on a temporary replacement, as he did in the past, is out of the question.
Maccabi understands that now is the time for action, and will accelerate efforts to find a creative guard who can help the team immediately – but there is no such thing at the moment. One of the names that Maccabi looked at was that of Marquis Reid from Grablin, who has an option to go to the Euroleague, but Maccabi gave up on the idea because it was decided to look for a guard who could take part in managing the game, while Reid is mostly a scorer who rarely creates for others. In recent days Reid’s name has been linked with Milan.
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