Maccabi Tel Aviv Missed the Mark: Reasons for the Summer Slump
Walla Sport editor Dror Hoffman and Roi Zuckerman discussed the turbulent summer for Maccabi Tel Aviv on the latest episode of "Double Dribble." Experts noted that following a change in ownership, the club lost momentum and ceded its advantage in the market.
Walla Sport editor Dror Hoffman and Roi Zuckerman discussed the turbulent summer that Maccabi Tel Aviv is going through in the latest episode of "Double Dribble" - a summer that, of course, has not yet ended, with plenty of question marks regarding both the roster and the management.
"The team is keeping Oded Kattash and part of its core, and then a historic change of ownership occurs," Zuckerman recalled. "Recanati buys out Federman, Eric Shtilman is out of the picture, and there is one shareholder with a 58% majority. And then, almost in one moment, and perhaps some will say that at that same moment of the ownership change, everything stopped. We are reaching the end of July without a senior center, without a backup center, and with Lonnie Walker who is one foot out of the club, while we also don't know who will replace him. So Hoffman, what stopped Maccabi Tel Aviv this summer?"
Hoffman replied: "I think that at the end of May there was an announcement about Shtilman and the Padenco group. Let's start with the fact that this was essentially the starting point that began this whole whirlwind, when a new partner entered, so to speak, if they allow him or approve him in the board of directors. And then, after two weeks or so, Maccabi Tel Aviv also won an amazing championship with an incomplete roster, with a great many injured players, in a fun and wonderful final series, and won the first 'double' for Oded Kattash in his tenure at Maccabi Tel Aviv. Essentially all the good things. That is to say, Maccabi Tel Aviv entered the summer in mid-June in the best way possible, with a great many players continuing, with a great tailwind from the club and its fans.
"The signing of Bonzie Colson, which is a very good signing of course. After that came Yam Madar, that came much later, but we knew that. And something happened, and we are already at the end of July, and in this month they stopped... There are a great many changes at Maccabi Tel Aviv, for those who know and for those who don't know, a great many personnel changes also within the management. I think Maccabi missed out big time here, Zuki. Missed out big time here. Lost a month of momentum here, that from being on Olympus they went down deep, deep, deep, behind Hapoel Tel Aviv for example."
The Walla Sport editor explained: "At the beginning of July, Maccabi Tel Aviv's starting point was higher and better than Hapoel Tel Aviv's. It doesn't matter what Hapoel Tel Aviv would have brought - even if they had brought Russell Westbrook, this summer was Maccabi Tel Aviv's summer. And today Hapoel Tel Aviv has passed them, and I think that is a very big problem. Maccabi Tel Aviv has not yet freed itself from the shackles of the slightly outdated management, and I say this every time, of things that move a bit slowly and were perhaps correct for other years. We are in a different era, in an era of big money...
"The current Maccabi Tel Aviv management will not stay like this. It doesn't mean that Shtilman will buy Recanati, so you don't misunderstand. But I do think that we are very close to another change. That is to say, another introduction of a partner, probably alongside Recanati. Yes, there are all kinds of rumors, you know, some more concrete, some less. We don't deal with rumors, and we also don't know that much. I do know that it is on the agenda and on paper."
