Coach's gruff treatment of striker is no recipe for success
Yannick Kamanan wanted to spend last weekend's halftime against Bnei Sakhnin laying down on a locker room bench. "Lie down and keep a bag of ice on your back until you leave here," Maccabi Tel Aviv team doctor Robert Cohen told him. But Kamanan and his ailing back didn't account for coach Nir Levin's reaction. Seconds before the coach had thrown out Omer Peretz after having a heated exchange of words with him.
"What do you think you're doing? You've got exactly one second to sit up," the coach yelled at his French striker, groaning from his aches. "I'm lying here because the doctor told me," Kamanan told Levin, who hasn't ceased taking him to task since arriving. "You only have complaints about me the whole time."
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Ask anyone at Maccabi - from the front office to the last reserve. They'll all tell you the same thing about who gets the harshest treatment from the coach. Just a few days before last night's game, Kamanan, the team's leading scorer, was ejected from practice for the umpteenth time. Ironically, the incident started with a run-in between Jonathan Assous and Yossi Shivhon.
Eli Cohen, the man who brought Kamanan to Tel Aviv, found a player with a delicate soul who needs to be treated thoughtfully. "Kamanan needs a lot of pats on the back," Cohen says. "You need to give him confidence, which he'll pay back on the pitch. You need to talk to him in the right manner and certainly not insult him."
During their first month together Cohen called in the striker for several personal talks, be it for compliments or critiques. Team CEO Tammy Friedman saw Kamanan's weak spot and continued the pep talks even after Cohen's departure. During a major slump, she even sent him a personal coach for three weeks, who helped him get back on track with his scoring. Levin apparently hasn't gotten the message.
The tension between the two started six months ago, after Kamanan complained that no goalie was willing to stay with him after practice to work on his shots on goal. A month ago at a team meeting Levin threatened, "If you don't obey my rules, I'll replace you." Kamanan scored a pair of goals that weekend against Herzliya, but the abuse didn't stop. A confused Kamanan complained to a teammate, "If Nir and Avi Nimni are so unhappy with me, then why don't they release me?"
Matters came to a head January 27 with Maccabi's 90th minute 1-0 loss to Maccabi Netanya. Kamanan was taken out during the second half with an injury. Levin saw him being interviewed and decided to berate him next to the reporters. "You're hurt and have no strength to play, but you've got a lot of energy to be interviewed," the coach yelled at him. Carrying on in the locker room Levin shouted, "You can't stop a ball, you didn't even get one scoring opportunity."
For months Kamanan was convinced Nimni was plotting against him for complaining that management had acted too quickly in firing Cohen. Nimni had given him the cold shoulder until the latest Tel Aviv derby, when he greeted the striker with a kiss and a hug that broke the ice.
A scout from Krylia Sovetov Samara was slated to be at last night's game to check out Kamanan, who figures into the Russian premier league club's plans. However, he still has a year on his Maccabi contract, and Maccabi associates say the next coach won't be the type who likes to yell a lot. That could suit Kamanan just fine.
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