There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.83 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Imanol García was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Reno Piscopo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Arema go through and Persik go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
A 3‑2 win over PSIM, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Persik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Reno Piscopo is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The offer from Bali United for Irkham Mila was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Imanol García and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Reno Piscopo falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Persik have made the call to Fortuna Sittard. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Persik has been clear about where Husna Al Malik stands, which is more than many ever get.
A brace, and José Enrique takes the afternoon — 8.99
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. José Enrique provided it, and the 8.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Persik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Reno Piscopo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fortuna Sittard have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.