Angelides said: “You have to trust the system that there’s a process for making the right decisions and I think on balance that over the last 15-16 years under Mitch Goldhar’s ownership of the club there is reason to trust the club. It is not my words but this is something that is proven by facts. You have an owner who has made over the years difficult decisions. He’s not shied away from making difficult decisions. He is not a person who has avoided difficult decisions. In fact, he’s made decisions that fans and others perhaps didn’t agree with. But they were the right decisions in his mind because of the long-term interest and long-term future of the Club. We have a situation where the club is now going through a difficult period like all football clubs, some bad results that none of us find acceptable, none of us are happy with, none of us are sitting quietly and accepting. But we have a system that is dealing with these things.
The club decided that the right thing to do, is to take action against the people who are responsible and no one else. I don’t see how you can defend these people, how anyone can defend these people. It is unacceptable. No matter what your view is, whether you like, anyone at the club or not. The least that you could do is stand up and say this is wrong and say it in a loud voice, in a firm voice, because what we don’t need is to encourage this kind of behavior.”
With regards to Maccabi’s Head Coach Zarko Lazetic, who returned to training, Angelides explained: “We have had discussions with him and it was a question of explaining him to look at things in a different perspective and also give some assurances. He will take training, and he will be the coach. We will continue target the achievements that we wanted from the beginning of the season. We will try and correct the mistakes that have been made but we will do it in a way maybe a right one maybe a wrong one but we will do it in a way that is according to the system that has been built with the people who have the right knowledge and with an owner who has been here right from the beginning.”
Maccabi’s Director of Football Ben Mansford added: “The most important thing is Maccabi wins every three or four days and competes for titles. Zarko is an incredibly good coach with a great staff, with a brilliant support structure around him. Of course, only 11 players can play at one time, and no one is perfect. We all make mistakes. We come together now, and we move forward as I believe that we can all help each other. As for the supporters, when we won last year, it was because we are all together and we need to work as fast as we can to get back to that. I need to help Zarko, Dominic Price, all of us. But we win and lose as a team. We win and lose as a staff and as a group of players. We all have to come together, and we all have to realize that this group, this club is good enough to win another championship. It is good enough to pick up points and succeed in Europe. It is good enough to win another State Cup. And now we come together, we really look each other in the mirror. These are tough times. It is just real hard work, real character, taking one step forward, doing the right things, doing the simple things, and making sure we get back on track. For me, it’s just real commitment and hard work and togetherness. and pushing each other and having difficult conversations. And I think we’ve got an environment and a place of work where we can have those.”
