Maccabi Haifa's rebuilt football operation got its first real test on Saturday, and it did not go the way sporting director Lior Raphaelov and head coach Barak Bachar would have wanted.
Two days earlier, the pair had sat together at a press conference to lay out their vision for 2026/27, talking about forging a group with real character and repairing the bond with supporters, according to ONE.
Instead, Maccabi opened the season with a 3-2 Toto Cup defeat to local rivals Hapoel Haifa - the first time Hapoel have beaten their neighbours in the competition since 1997, a statistic that will sting far more than a single group-stage result normally would.
There were notes of continuity out on the pitch. Omri Glazer, back at the club for a second spell, started in goal and wore the captain's armband, with Kenji Gorré - the player Raphaelov has since named as the club's first captain for the season - still away on international duty and expected to join up only once his summer commitments end.
Off the pitch, the turnover that defined Maccabi's summer was still being felt keenly. Dolev Haziza, a fixture at the club for seven years, and Abdulai Seck, in his fourth season, have both left, while Goni Naor - who had reportedly already been told he was out of the club's plans - was thrown into the derby and was involved in the mistakes that led to Hapoel's goals, according to Sport1.
Raphaelov's plan also includes a three-captain system for the season, with Glazer and Ali Mohamed set to share leadership duties alongside Gorré once the squad is back to full strength.
Bachar, who returned for a third spell in charge after being let go only months earlier, has been open about the scale of the job in front of him. "I've changed - what happened last season cannot come back," he told Walla Sport, referring to a campaign that ended with Maccabi Haifa down in fifth place.
That finish is why the club chose to keep Bachar rather than replace him, while handing broader control of the football side to Raphaelov as sporting director - a restructuring meant to give the coach more support, not less scrutiny.
One defeat in the Toto Cup will not define whether that restructuring works. But it has sharpened the questions Raphaelov and Bachar will face all season: whether the squad has the depth to cope with departures like Haziza's and Seck's, whether new arrivals are ready to contribute immediately, and whether the promised team identity shows up once the games start to matter.
