After guiding Maccabi Haifa to Israel Premier League glory in each of the last two seasons, it’s fair to say Barak Bakhar has credit in the bank. He might need it too.
When Bakhar was being quizzed about the Rangers job back in November – flattered to have emerged as an option for the Glasgow giants following Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s dismissal – his Maccabi side were on a run of 10 wins in 12 games. Bakhar’s sixth league title in just seven years, at the time, felt like a case of ‘if’ rather than ‘when’.
Four months on, things no longer seem quite so inevitable. Yes, Maccabi Haifa are still top of the table. But a once-cavernous gap has now been closed to just four points; the reigning champions winning one of their last five games.
One in six across all competitions.
Bakhar may be the ‘greatest coach in Israel’ but even he is not impervious to criticism. The decision to leave top scorer Omar Azili on the bench for Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Ashdod backfired badly. For the first time in his otherwise glorious tenure, some questions are starting to be asked.
Rangers looked at Barak Bakhar before hiring Mick Beale
“We have to tell the truth. We haven’t returned from the (World Cup) break,” one Maccabi player tells Sports Walla. “If we don’t wake up, we will lose first place.”
If Rangers are in ‘hunter’ mode – attempting to close the distance between themselves and Celtic at the top of the Scottish Premiership table – than Maccabi Haifa are in danger of becoming the ‘hunted’.
According to Sport5, Rangers enquired about Bakhar’s availability before luring Beale back to Ibrox in November. The 43-year-old has accumulated no fewer than 10 trophies in a decade of management, and you can see why a Rangers side with title ambitions will have taken notice of his glittering CV.
“It’s flattering,” Bakhar said at the time. “I don’t care (if the rumours of Rangers’ interest) are true or not. In any case, right now, it’s not relevant.”
The good news, for Maccabi Haifa, is that they could hardly ask for a better manager to guide them out of the bunker and back onto the familiar surroundings of the fairway.
“Obviously there is a process after the bad momentum,” Bakhar tells Ynet. “We need to raise the level in terms of aggressiveness, intensity, attacking. In everything.”
