Interesting that Malmö managed to sign Jari Litmanen, if he only can stay fit and not on the sideline because of injuries I reckon he will be a major impact in the Swedish league. There is also rumours that Mikael Nilsson and Andreas Jakobsson are on their way back to Sweden and Malmö. For the first time in many years (although Djurgården did great with Källström and Isaksson) we might have a strong team going into the champions league!
I'm from Tel-Aviv, and i'll tell you abit about MFF's chances vs Maccabi Haifa: First of all, Haifa lost this summer 2 very importent players: Giovanni Rosso,midfield - from the Croationa national team- maybe the best foregin player ever played in Israel except Yakubu. Rosso moved to Maccabi tel-aviv (my team... . No replacement has been signed yet. Walid Badeer, defensive midfield- He is very strong def.mid , kinda like roy keane but not as crazy. Badeer left to Hapoel T"A. Also, no replacment signed yet. Except those 2 losses, the best player of the year, Idan Tal (also midfield, played in Everton for 2 years), also almost quit the team after he recieved an offer from Alaves. After he didn't report to training, he appologized and is currenty staying. The 2 best playes are Yaniv Katan and Roberto Kolauti. Katan, like Yossi Benayoun from Santander, is Israel's most promosing talent. He is fast, but has poor finish. Kolauti is an Argentinian striker signed from Boca-very strong with excellent finish. The weakest link is the denfence is think. Although Benado-Keisi-Harazi have a lot of experience, they are old (each is over 30 year old), and i'm not sure they can keep the pace with Alfonso Alves and the rest. I think the chances are 70%-30% for MFF. In Sweden i'm sure MFF will win, in Israel it will be hell for you, with more then 35 degrees. We israelis are used to it, but Litmanen will probably melt. Good luck
Provided that Litmanen stays healthy, he's going to provide leadership, experience and creativity in the midfield. I believe that's why MFF picked him up. The best thing MFF fans can do is pray that he stays healthy. I'm glad he got out of Rostock though. Not a nice club to be with right now.