Marked for Mendonça
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Apr 2027
19 matches without a win for Madura United
The run now stands at 19, and the questions being asked around Madura United are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Apr 2027
84 days out for Jordy Wehrmann after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Madura United will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad5 Apr 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vava Mario Yagalo
61 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Madura United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Júnior Brandão 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.
Loan watch5 Apr 2027
“I did not go to Persebaya to sit and watch. I want to come back to Madura United and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 9 matches say the rest.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
Wages eat 92% of everything Madura United earn
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.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Mendonça stands above it all
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.38 on the card, and the Madura United support went home talking about one name.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Fachri Asnawi after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Madura United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ardi Idrus 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match27 Feb 2027
14 matches without a win for Madura United
The run now stands at 14, and the questions being asked around Madura United are no longer polite ones.
Squad1 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Vava Mario Yagalo
99 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Madura United lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match27 Feb 2027
11 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Madura United can tell you which week it ends in.
Market1 Mar 2027
“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 Madura United, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Madura United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Feb 2027
Persib left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Madura United now.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout2 Nov 2026
Dimitar Mitkov: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Madura United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market2 Nov 2026
Dimitar Mitkov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Madura United they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
The Madura United board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
267% of the income goes out in wages at Madura United
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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Kurniawan Santoso and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Market2 Nov 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market2 Nov 2026
Madura United have made Kerim Palić available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
Market2 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Madura United know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Ilhamsyah has had enough of the bench
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Madura United will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Oct 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Madura United is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Madura United may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Dimitar Mitkov has agreed terms with Persib for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Júnior Brandão and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
395% of the income goes out in wages at Madura United
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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Ardi Idrus 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.
Market5 Oct 2026
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Taufik Hidayat has his answer from Madura United; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.