Hapoel Tel Aviv owner Kabiri stuck between a rock and Eli Gutman’s ghost
Like a deer caught in the headlights, Hapoel Tel Aviv owner Amir Kabiri looked both helpless and hapless.
The day after Hapoel suffered a record equaling 5-0 derby defeat to Maccabi Tel Aviv, a dejected and dazed Kabiri addressed the media on Monday night, seeking forgiveness from the club’s supporters.
Around 100 of those fans spent the previous hours shouting abuse at Kabiri and the team’s players, venting their frustration after Hapoel was humiliated in the first derby of the season, leaving it without a win from the first five matches of the Premier League campaign and just one place above the bottom of the standings.
“Yesterday’s match is a stain on the club, on myself as the owner and on everyone who took part in this shameful event,” said Kabiri at the team’s Hodorov training complex.
“We apologize first and foremost to our fans. We will do everything to fix the situation. We will not stop until we bring the club to the place it deserves to be at. With all the pain that we are all feeling we need to unite around this team and bring it back to the place it deserves to be at starting from Saturday’s match against Ashkelon.”
Kabiri spoke about uniting forces, but there was one notable absentee from his side when he was speaking following Monday’s training session. Sports director Eli Gutman didn’t show up for Monday’s or Tuesday’s sessions, leaving Kabiri, the players and the head coach he appointed last week – Guy Luzon – to take all the heat.
Gutman’s disappearance is in many ways a slap in the face for Kabiri, with the former the man responsible more than any other for Hapoel’s dire state.
Gutman was hailed as the Messiah when he returned to the club in January. In his previous tenure he guided the team to a championship and State Cup double in 2009/10 and to the Champions League group stage the following season.
But Hapoel’s situation has only deteriorated during his tumultuous second term, which began with him being appointed as an all-powerful manager, only to then fire the head coach and take his place before ultimately naming himself as sports director last week. So desperate was Gutman to leave his post that he agreed to forgo NIS 480,000 after tax from his salary this season in favor of Luzon.
Unlike when he took charge in the middle of last season, Gutman can’t use as an excuse the fact he didn’t build the current squad or prepare it for the season.
The most damning verdict on Gutman was provided by Guy Levy, who was the team’s head coach when Gutman returned at the start of the year, but was fired only a week later.
“I respect Hapoel Tel Aviv as a club but after what they did to me, their day of reckoning has arrived,” Luzon told Sport5. “Gutman got into Kabiri’s head and reached a new extreme with last week’s invention of moving to a different role so that he can transfer the responsibility to someone else.
“I don’t think Hapoel’s squad is so bad that it justifies its current position in the standings. And it is all Eli Gutman’s fault.”
Levy said he pities Gutman as he is ending his career in a “shameful” manner before blaming him for caring only about his bank account.
“Hapoel needs to find a man of truth, someone who will build the team for the club and not for himself,” explained Levy. “Kabiri has good intentions and everyone makes mistakes. But his main mistake was Eli Gutman. I tried to explain that to him but he followed Gutman like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.”
While Luzon’s tenure as coach got off to the worst possible start with the derby demolition, it is still early in the season and he has plenty of time to steady the ship.
Hapoel’s problems go far beyond results on the pitch though, with Kabiri revealing earlier this month that the club’s deficit stands at NIS 45 million.
Players, and in particular lower paid club staff, have had the payment of their salaries delayed time and again since Kabiri’s takeover last year, with the 36-year-old claiming he inherited unknown debts from previous owners.
“I made many mistakes and made some moves I’m not at peace with, but we will learn from this and correct our mistakes,” he said earlier this month.
“The most pressing matter is the delay in the payment of salaries. Everyone at the club knows this can’t continue. The club will return to its old self despite the tough situation.”
Matters have only gone from bad to worse since, with Hapoel in complete disarray both on and off the pitch. The 5-0 record loss in the derby, equaling the score-line registered by Maccabi in 1970, was a stark illustration of the gulf between the clubs in every single playing and managerial facet.
It is true that Maccabi enjoys a significant advantage thanks to the resources of Canadian-Jewish billionaire Mitch Goldhar.
But with all its difficulties, Hapoel still has the fourth-highest budget in the league this season. Clearly its troubles go far beyond money, or the lack of it.
No one questions Kabiri’s intentions, but there is also little doubt Hapoel is paying a dear price for his lack of experience in the world of sports. Kabiri put his complete faith in Gutman, but that has only set the club even further back.
For the first time since his return, fans called for Gutman’s head following the derby debacle, and it would be no surprise if he eventually chose to resign.
With his flip-flopping regarding the role he wants to fill and his decision making in the building of the team’s squad, Gutman would be doing Kabiri a favor by leaving.
Kabiri has made almost every mistake in the book, but with Hapoel in desperate need of a complete overhaul, both the club’s short- and long-term future rest on him coming to his senses.
allon@jpost.com