Ziv Arieh used his first press conference as Maccabi Petah Tikva head coach to frame Saturday's Ligat Ha'al season opener against Ironi Kiryat Shmona as a straightforward step, telling reporters the move to the club had never felt complicated.
"The decision to come was easy — once I left Hapoel Jerusalem, this option came along," Arieh said, according to ONE. "I see good players here and I believe in the squad."
Arieh's appointment in late May capped a swift return to the touchline. He had spent close to seven years in charge of Hapoel Jerusalem, guiding the capital club up into Ligat Ha'al and leaving this spring as the longest-serving coach in the team's modern history before Petah Tikva moved to bring him in.
He now inherits a Maccabi Petah Tikva side that is itself back among Israel's elite after winning promotion from Liga Leumit, and Arieh was careful on Friday not to get ahead of himself about what the season could bring.
Rather than talk up distant targets, he kept the focus tight on Saturday's 8pm kickoff, acknowledging Kiryat Shmona as a worthy opponent while insisting his own group is capable of competing from the first whistle even as it is still bedding in.
Speaking alongside him, defender Aviv Salem struck a similarly measured tone, describing a Maccabi Petah Tikva squad that is "going through a process" to find its footing. "We are undergoing a process to become stable," he said.
Salem, who joined the club during the January transfer window after a spell at Hapoel Tel Aviv that did not work out, pointed to a group mixing younger players with squad members carrying experience from the lower divisions — part of the rebuild Petah Tikva has undertaken since sealing its promotion.
For Arieh, Saturday's trip against Kiryat Shmona doubles as the first real test of that project, with a new coach and a newly promoted roster both looking to show, from round one, that last season's climb back to Ligat Ha'al was no fluke.
