Haim Silves looks calm. Whoever coached Bnei Sakhnin until recently, since then had time to fly on vacation, to rest, and is now enjoying the moment. Sylves was invited to ONE’s today’s conversation podcast with Gidi Lipkin for an open and fascinating conversation, in which he spoke freely about everything, everything that was on his mind.
Sylves even explained why he did not vote in the last Knesset elections. The coach even admits that: “My conduct is in accordance with the profession, not in accordance with my personality.” Listen:
Regarding the fact that Sakhnin approached him to continue the engagement only at the last minute and it seemed that it was only a matter of time before they fired him, Silves said: “I’m not stupid and I understand the matter. As everyone understood, it seemed strange. When I entered this profession, I realized that I had to conduct myself in a professional manner And know not to take anything personally.”
Sylves continues: “That summer I looked at the things I had professionally and financially and the offers I had. In the end when Sakhnin approached me, I tried to look at things as if I had never been there before, and the offer suited me so I took it. It is true that on a personal level it is a bit insulting that my contract was not immediately extended, which was required. I looked for a small reason why it wouldn’t happen and I didn’t find it, we had a really great season, and what happened happened. When I entered this season, I knew my chances were less.”
Did you sign there only because of livelihood matters?
“No. You have to understand, those who coach football and think that this is the main livelihood, it cannot last long. I can manage even without football. I am considering my offers because I was successful there, I had a lot of fun there and there were good players there that I was very connected to.
It may be that one or two in the system preferred to check more options. There is a management of a lot of people there, I guess a lot of them were in my favor in addition to the crowd. Perhaps Muhammad Abu Yunus hesitated a little, but in the end they came to me. Someone wise told me at the beginning when I would go into crises in my teams, ‘Always try to come to the next practice as if it’s the first time you come to the team.'”
Sylves told how he almost ended up in Hapoel Hadera: “Hapoel Hadera contacted me, I sat down to talk with Oren Golan and we came to an understanding, it was two days before the last round when there was nothing to play for anymore, when Sakhnin met with other coaches. Oren and I came to an understanding and then he told me ‘ Let’s make a document and be done with it’, so I answered him that I could not out of commitment to the profession. After that, I told him: ‘Listen, there is a game in two days, let me finish the game, I will respect the players and the club, and then my head will only be With that, and on Sunday we’ll close everything’, and he didn’t like it. I told him there was nothing to do, this is what I do, and the next day he thought I wasn’t closed about it, so he signed Assaf Nemani. If I wanted to, I could.”
So why are you fired everywhere? Why don’t you finish another season and part with them amicably?
“That’s how it is in these groups. It happens to everyone, even coaches older than me. Once you don’t make the jump to a big club, you’ll be in the areas of those clubs. You will have a good season and in the end you will have a less good season because it is impossible to have only good seasons in these teams, because a team that is good immediately is dismantled the following season. There are financial considerations, you can’t build the same team.”
About the work in Sakhnin, Silves said: “I will break your stigmas, I had a really good time working there. It’s a very creative club, it’s very driven by results. Until the sequence of the worst results, because of which I was fired, we only succeeded, both at the end of the previous season and at the beginning of the current season. Surprisingly there is a negative feeling, but Sakhnin people have never interfered or questioned my work. Me, Abu Younes and Khaled Douchi talked every week.”
During the conversation, Silves surprised: “I’ll tell you what my perception is. King Solomon asked the prophet to ask God to stay in the kingdom a little longer, and he told him that ‘no kingdom touches its company.’ If you left the place you were in, now it’s someone else’s business I am not angry with the person who replaces me because he replaces me not because of him but because of me, so I prefer that he be my friend, that he earns and succeeds.”
Do you go to Torah classes? You keep the Sabbath?
“Unfortunately I am not enough. I used to walk more, it makes you smarter. I try to do the basic things, my wife is closer to religion than I am. I put on tefillin, but do not keep Shabbat. I have many options to do more than what I am doing, I am Jewish, I understand that there is something stronger and bigger than me above me, I think that I am not doing enough for it, but I am probably not yet mature.”
Sylves spoke honestly about not going to vote in the last election: “The truth is that I did not vote in any election from the last rounds. I can’t understand until the end who gives what. I think I must make an impact, but I can’t seem to understand or like a single thing. I’m afraid to help something bad so unfortunately I avoid. Originally, I come from a right-wing household, we grew up in a Likud household, but I haven’t been able to connect over the years. I’m not well-informed enough, I’m quite indifferent to the political issue, and because I can’t decipher this thing, I disconnect and try not to see either.”
Sylves surprises with the things he tells and praises Yoav Katz: “Without offending anyone I worked with, Yoav Katz is one of the people I enjoyed working with the most. If there’s anything I regret, it’s that moment I had to say goodbye. He is a very sensitive person who sees you. For example, there is a sequence of bad games and then you get to a very stressful game, in which you also lose. It’s a moment where you could probably be fired, and then he can call you on the phone and calm you down. You feel that there is a human being in front of you and not just a boss.
I think his public relations are not good compared to his actions, he invests a lot of money in the team, the conditions there for the players themselves are very good. Yoav Katz puts a lot of money on players, players like to play for Hapoel Haifa, there are players who have been playing for many years and want to retire from the team because they are well compensated.”
Sylves goes back and tells an amazing story about what happened between him and Shawn Weissman: “Every step I take forward I feel that I am improving, fixing things and changing myself. For example, two years ago, I was in Madrid, I was walking in a mall, suddenly I see Shawn Weissman right in front of my eyes, We looked at each other, in the end I approached him when I knew he was angry with me. He told me, ‘There is a date I will never forget, January 26.’ confidence and I was not able to do it properly. There was a Cup round of 16 match against Shafaram, a flood came down and it was a very tense game. In the 12th minute they received a penalty and we got a red card, and things didn’t work out for us. Even so, I was at the edge with Izzy (Sharetzky), Until in the 88th minute Ahmed Abed kicked a ball and scored 1: 1. In the overtime we also suffered until in the 117th minute Shagib Yehezkel kicked and scored 2-1 which brought us victory.
A few minutes before, Weissman came on as a substitute and felt he didn’t get enough minutes. He started playing with himself, trying to score a goal by himself. There was a section where we were running and he could have delivered a pass for the goal, then he lost the ball and didn’t return to defend. I was boiling. The atmosphere was very tense, and the game was over. The next day we practiced in the hall because of the weather, and people poisoned me about Sean Weissman. I was a young coach, I just passed Ra’anana and this is my second team. Everyone saw clearly that he was doing it on purpose. Then we had a meeting and then I went down on him in front of everyone, for literally 5 minutes throwing quite a few harsh insults at him. Sean is a golden person, and I hurt him. He went away, in the end it calmed down and he stayed in the team and we improved the game and he started in the lineup. I hurt him and he did not forget me, and rightly so.”
What do you say about his success?
“I think it’s amazing. One of the great things about Sean is that during that time I saw him falter, and he was always good and in good spirits. He had his moments of anger, but he was always a professional. I’m really happy for him, he has an amazing story with a great inspiration for a lot of kids because he didn’t get it from the beginning.
It took time for him, he reached Maccabi Netanya in the National League, he was not a starting player in KSH either, and in Maccabi Haifa he was a substitute. I’m very happy for him, it’s all thanks to him. No human being can take credit for his career except him, unlike many other players who get their opportunities from coaches, this is not the case.”
Regarding the state of the coaches in Israel, Silves says: “Regarding the status of the coach, there are good coaches in Israel. We sat with good coaches abroad, we wanted it ourselves. In terms of knowledge and from a human point of view, there are good coaches in Israel, our problem is from a cultural point of view. I remember when I was a small child, My mother would call the soldier and tell him to come eat. I would go with my father to the garages in Haifa, there were pictures of the prime minister and the president. Today it’s not like that. The taller you are, they want to hit you. We the coaches, we don’t really have the opportunity to defend ourselves at that level The personal in front of the media and in front of the general atmosphere they put us in.”
“For the sake of it, Nir’s case should now affect all the coaches. The fact that I was fired suddenly affects other coaches as well. I think we should try to respect each other, even though it is easy to attack each and every one of them, both the players and the owners. We talked about Yoav Katz most of the time He is ridiculed. He is not a coach. This is the culture of all of us here. You see enough programs and panels, the more you hit, the more you say words that are as if the truth is inside, then you have more ratings and a better chance to make a living as a media person. It is a tree that everyone here Cut it to each other little by little and eventually it produces some kind of general depression that drives home owners away.
The owner of the house who came to the Jerusalem hospital suffers, Yoav Katz, somehow survives, if he was in Israel he would not have succeeded. Even in Sakhnin, as much as one can argue about their conduct, they bring money even though they are beaten all the time. What wonder they want to resign? They are constantly being hit. I think culturally we need to change, the feeling is that everyone wants to beat everyone else and the higher you are they want to bring you down. Again, this is not only the status of the coach, but also the status of the president, the prime minister, the owners of the houses. Everyone. A person should be treated better, even if you can take him down. It’s like that between a man and a woman.”
Regarding his future, Silves is certain: “I will end up in a big team.” And what about the fight for the championship? Regarding that, too, he is quite adamant: “Maccabi Haifa will win the championship, it is a little better than Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Beer Sheva. Ivitch’s departure will hurt Maccabi Tel Aviv “A. I think that Maccabi Tel Aviv already contributed the points that caused it a problem in the run against Maccabi Haifa, if someone had to take the championship from her, he would have already opened a gap during the time she was playing in the championships.”