Maccabi Tel Aviv CEO on Roy Revivo: "When we receive the right offer, we will be ready to sell"

Following the painful elimination from the Europa League last Thursday and the drop to the Conference League, Maccabi Tel Aviv held a press conference this morning, Saturday, where the new sporting director, Steven Vanharen, was introduced. He spoke alongside the club's CEO, Jack Angelidis, on a number of issues, including Roy Revivo's desire to move to Spain.

Jack Angelidis began his remarks:

"We wanted to officially introduce Steven and give him a chance to speak, but first of all, it is important for me to emphasize: the ambition of this club, from the first day Mitch Goldhar took ownership, is to be the best club in the country. We want to compete for every title and be as competitive as possible in Europe. These ambitions remain unchanged."

Regarding Revivo, he stated:

"We have great respect for Roy and his family. He is a great player with huge potential that has not yet been fully realized. He is under contract with us. When the club receives an offer that we feel is right for us, there will be no problem reaching an agreement and allowing him to fulfill his ambition to move to Europe. The club has proven many times that when offers at the appropriate level arrive, we are ready to sell. But we are not in the business of developing players to sell, we are in the business of winning titles. A player can negotiate his contract, but the club also has the right to negotiate his fair value. We also need to think about the day after."

Regarding the elimination from the Europa League, Angelidis noted:

"Obviously there is disappointment, I would even say extreme disappointment. This is something we must learn from, but we must pick ourselves up and move forward. A lot of work is being done behind the scenes, even before the end of last season, to make changes and improvements. Many things are not visible at the moment, but they are in progress and I am sure the changes will be seen as soon as possible."

Vanharen added:

"The story started about two months ago when Jack contacted me. From the very first conversation, I felt there was a common ground for work. After that, I spoke with Mitch, our owner, and again with Jack, and very quickly I understood that we share the same standards of high performance and ambitions. In my seven weeks here, a lot of things are happening. As a sporting director, I have built a strategic plan that consists of short, medium, and long-term goals."

Angelidis addressed the issue of acquisitions:

"The phenomenon of the speed of implementing changes in Israel has always existed; it is natural that it takes longer here to bring in foreign players. In this sense, the current situation is not unusual. Of course, you always try to shorten the time, and we are very happy that we brought in Aster Vranckx, I think it was a good signing. But there are many issues that need to be addressed that are part of the exercise of making changes to the squad."

Vanharen also addressed the issue of reinforcement:

"First of all, you have to respect the players who are currently in the team. They showed quality, intensity, and a mindset that they want to achieve our goals. They proved that they can win games under high pressure, like in the game where we scored three goals in front of a hostile away crowd of 28,000 people. That is not taken for granted. Secondly, we need to strengthen the squad, but it is impossible to change an entire team in one transfer window. It is always something that spans several transfer periods. We didn't just bring in Aster, we also brought in Dan Glazer."