After finishing its season in the National League and securing promotion, Maccabi Petah Tikva will begin preparations for an official return to the Premier League on Sunday, when several talks and meetings with potential players will be held.
First, the team decided to start training at an earlier stage, around 20.6. Already on 13.7, the team will take off for the training camp in Austria, with one opponent for the camp already determined: the subsidiary team of Sturm Graz, which plays in the second Austrian league.
The club first of all wants to close the goalkeeper position, with Roi Mishpeti, whose candidacy we published in ONE, being the leading candidate. Pat has already received messages from the goalkeeper and his representative Dodo Dahan, that he wants to come, but the club will try to close the issue financially in the coming days, when there are currently financial gaps between the parties.
Coach Benny Lam will also try to add a foreign stopper soon, as the team has been offered a number of Israeli names to strengthen the squad, among them Or Belorian, Muhammad Shekar, Ziv Morgan and Ilai Almakais. The group is currently in talks with Anas Mahamid, a striker of Umm Al Fahm, when the parties did reach financial understandings, but there is a debate as to whether to sign him.
The team would also like to see Yoni Stoyanov join, but are aware of the fact that if this happens, it will only be after the midfielder begins his training at Hapoel Be’er Sheva and not before the middle of July at the earliest.
On another topic, after a lull in the protest by the fans to the strongest man in the club, Avi Luzon, last night, after the game, close to 30 fans were waiting for Luzon at the end of the game against Hapoel Kfar Saba, but the latter, who parked his car at the stadium, did not encounter them and went home.
Among the fans, they claim that Luzon promised that if a person is found who can replace him, both on the financial level, he will hand over the team, when as we published, Elad Meiri is ready to take over the team. Luzon, for his part, remains determined to stay and it seems that with the qualification for the Premier League, the relationship between Luzon and the fans may once again come to a screeching halt.
