Eyal Berkovic rarely softens an opinion, and on ONE's Sicha Hayom programme this week he delivered both a concrete forecast for Maccabi Haifa's coming season and a blunt verdict on the managerial upheaval at Beitar Jerusalem.
On Haifa, the former Israel international turned outspoken pundit was direct. "At least for now, it looks like they'll compete for places four to eight," he said, sizing up a squad he clearly does not see challenging at the very top of Ligat Ha'al next season.
He went further on head coach Barak Bachar, suggesting the club's patience will run out fast if results don't improve once the league gets under way. "If it continues like this in the league too, I don't see Barak Bachar continuing," Berkovic said, according to ONE.
It was the situation across town, at Beitar Jerusalem, that drew his sharpest words. The club begins the new season with Almog Cohen in the dugout after a summer that saw Barak Yitzhaki depart the post he had held for two and a half seasons, a spell that included a title race against Hapoel Be'er Sheva last term.
Independent reporting on the split, in Haaretz and Israel Hayom, described a pay dispute at the centre of it: club owner Barak Abramov had offered to raise Yitzhaki's monthly salary from 50,000 to 70,000 shekels plus performance bonuses, an offer Yitzhaki reportedly felt undervalued him against coaches like Ran Kozuk and Bachar. Cohen, until then the club's technical director, was promoted to replace him.
Berkovic isn't buying the money explanation. "Over five thousand shekels it fell apart? Come on," he said, dismissing the salary gap as the real trigger. His own theory is that Cohen's professional involvement, not Beitar's wallet, is what pushed Yitzhaki out: "In my opinion they interfered with Yitzhaki professionally, and that's why he left."
He was just as skeptical that Cohen's own move to the touchline will end well. "I think it's a bad decision by him," Berkovic said of the switch from the boardroom to the bench, predicting a short honeymoon with a notoriously demanding fan base — two or three bad results, in his view, would be enough to turn the Teddy Stadium stands against the new coach.
Berkovic, an attacking midfielder who played for West Ham United, Southampton, Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers and Portsmouth during his career, has become one of Israeli football's most prominent — and most willing to needle — broadcasters since retiring, and his verdicts on both Haifa and Beitar are likely to follow both clubs into the new campaign.
