The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Yacob Sayuri for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Maluku Utara United will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. França 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Vico was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Maluku Utara United can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
0‑3 to PSIM, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
5 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
In brief
The dugoutVico loses the manager who believed in him
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Everybody at Maluku Utara United saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 36 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nílson Júnior 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑1, Dedi Pato could afford to be generous.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
19 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Maluku Utara United has to find a result from somewhere.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Marked 7.24 on 17 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and França was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He Yiran 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.
14 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
The terraces19 Jul 2027
Supporters turn on the $100.0K sale of Frets Butuan
He is going to Bali United, the club has $100.0K it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maluku Utara United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑1 to Persijap, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Nílson Júnior 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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Maluku Utara United will quote 15 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Maluku Utara United, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Frets Butuan has come up in conversations Maluku Utara United were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Maluku Utara United asked and Persija said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. França 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.
Frets Butuan 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.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Maluku Utara United can pretend not to have heard.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 14 combined actions and a mark of 7.12, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Maluku Utara United asked and Persib said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maluku Utara United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
18 appearances and 8 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maluku Utara United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Maluku Utara United has to find a result from somewhere.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maluku Utara United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maluku Utara United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Nílson Júnior and Maluku Utara United agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.55, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad17 May 2027
Noah Sadaoui 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.
Alexis Messidoro 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.
Marked 8.25 — 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Hendro Irawan on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Nobody at Dewa United will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
48 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Maluku Utara United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Persib go through and Maluku Utara United go home, 0‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 61 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vini Ed was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
França 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dedi Pato after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Nobody at Maluku Utara United will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Fredyan Wahyu
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noah Sadaoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Yofandani Pranata and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vico provided it, and the 8.89 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dewa United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Borneo. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Loan watch3 May 2027
Ady Setiawan is tired of being somebody else's player
“Another season, another badge, another dressing room to win over. I would like one pre-season at Dewa United where somebody actually looks at me.” He belongs to Persis until the spell ends; the argument is with the club that owns him.
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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Hendro Irawan on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maluku Utara United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maluku Utara United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maluku Utara United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nílson Júnior 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dewa United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dewa United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
A mark of 7.48, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Hendro Irawan was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Dewa United dressing room was either.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Persebaya defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
In brief
The dugoutTaisei Marukawa has become a man the manager trusts
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Noah Sadaoui will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Dewa United escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Everybody at Dewa United saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Dewa United did not have in the autumn.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Noah Sadaoui 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Dewa United know it.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Hendro Irawan after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dewa United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Dewa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Sadaoui 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Hendro Irawan kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The instruction came from the boardroom and the dugout did not agree with it. Somebody will go, the fee will be called good business, and the manager will spend the season rebuilding around the space.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Dewa United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noah Sadaoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dewa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 7.36 on 9 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Dewa United know it.
Ivar Jenner 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.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A performance of 8.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Dewa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rosivan 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.
4 matches without defeat, and then Persib. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 2‑3 Hendro Irawan left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Noah Sadaoui is on it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Dewa United will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
The words a physio says slowly. 18 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Alexis Messidoro and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dewa United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dewa United, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Dewa United has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dewa United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Persib have kept their man, and Dewa United go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Dewa United have made the call to Madura United. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Nobody at Dewa United will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Dewa United will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
A new face in his position, and Damion Lowe suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Dewa United have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexis Messidoro signs something — a contract at Dewa United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutRipal Wahyudi asks for a word with the manager
The words a physio says slowly. 32 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Dewa United, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dewa United have done the hard part with Persija, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dewa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Edo Febriansyah is on it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Dewa United have no good answer.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maluku Utara United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Maluku Utara United asked and Persib said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 37 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Maluku Utara United is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maluku Utara United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yacob Sayuri 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.
8 goals in 10 games at Dewa United — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Maluku Utara United updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nobody at Maluku Utara United will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
Frets Butuan is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
It is the least glamorous business a club does and the reason seasons do not collapse in February. Abdul Aziz is here for the weeks when three men are injured and somebody still has to play.
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dewa United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dewa United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Noah Sadaoui 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.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Dewa United than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Taisei Marukawa is on it.
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dewa United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Noah Sadaoui and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
The words a physio says slowly. 17 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 22 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and França was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8 goals in 10 games at Dewa United — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Maluku Utara United updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alan is on it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Frets Butuan is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Safrudin Tahar
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Maluku Utara United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 51 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Maluku Utara United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ngan Cheuk Pan and Maluku Utara United agree another 3 years.
8 goals in 10 games at Dewa United — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Maluku Utara United updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Frets Butuan's mistake
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Dewa United will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Dewa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Sadaoui 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.
Yofandani Pranata 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alexis Messidoro signs something — a contract at Dewa United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 17 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Dewa United and PSM in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Vico was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.44. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Noah Sadaoui was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maluku Utara United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Everybody at Maluku Utara United saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Muhammad Ridwan and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yacob Sayuri 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.
There was no pressure on him and nowhere he had to be. Maluku Utara United lost a goal to a decision that took half a second and will be discussed all week.
Alexis Messidoro 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
5 new faces, and Dewa United are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Nobody at Dewa United will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Maluku Utara United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Maluku Utara United can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and França was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Dedi Pato was not hiding it after 3‑3, and nobody in the Maluku Utara United dressing room was either.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
The dugoutDimas Drajad has become a man the manager trusts
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Vico’s exile
34 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dewa United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dewa United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Hendro Irawan to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
41 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dewa United lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Noah Sadaoui takes the afternoon — 8.91
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Noah Sadaoui provided it, and the 8.91 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vico provided it, and the 8.75 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Dewa United and Bali United in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Bali United made Dewa United work for it, but the scoreboard read 4‑2 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Dewa United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Noah Sadaoui 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.
Dewa United asked and Alavés said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Maluku Utara United will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
7.30, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and França was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Persita next, and one man in the Maluku Utara United dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Maluku Utara United have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Dewa United and Persija, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Dewa United asked and DAC Dunajska Streda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Arema will make the call about Rafael Struick this week. Dewa United have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
0‑3 to Persebaya, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Persijap waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Dewa United is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Hanif Jaya has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Rachmat Sucipto has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Aditya Arhan is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Dewa United dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Dewa United now know that too.